Thursday, November 5, 2009

After spending the bulk of the day documenting the Tea Party at the Capitol hosted by Michelle Bachmann, I ventured down to Fredericksburg, Virginia to meet with their local Tea Party group for a regular "meetup".

Even though I live in Maryland, and Fredericksburg is about one and a half hours from Kensington, I had been following the activities of their group through their chapter organizer, Scott. So, I wanted to meet the group in person. It was worth the long ride through heavy I-95 traffic.

The group began with just 5 members. And, now look at the attendence!

It is groups like this, all over the country, that are the only hope for stopping the headlong dive toward ruin by our legislators. Make no mistake about it. Small, active groups like the one in Fredericksburg were very responsible for making the issues of Liberty known to their fellow Virginians. And, is the potential of losing precious Liberties that turned the tide in Virgina. We own them a debt of gratitude no the state in which we live.

I took a few more images of the meeting and they can be found at this link.

I want to thank ALL of you that were able to attend the Tea Party event in DC that was sponsored by Michelle Bachmann. I've covered many events in DC in past years and to me this was a very respectable showing.

And, it was REALLY respectable given the short notice and that fact that it was a week day. I know that many of you sacrificed to be there.

When I cover an event I like to focus on YOU. That is because YOU are important. The celebraties are nice to see and to hear. But, the REAL work of preserving our liberties is being done by you.

As you look for your image, notice how many other smiling faces you see. That is why it is such a joy to take your pictures for free to document who you REALLY are as apposed to the slander from those who would rob us of liberties.

There are two albums. I wanted to get all the photos up as quickly as possible. So, one album has the unprocessed imaged straight from the camera. They can be found here.

I would love for you to add a comment to your images and let everyone know why you took your valuable time to be there.

If you are in any of these images, you have my permission to download and reproduce them for personal use. If you download the 'Original' size, they can be printed as large as 4' x 6' without any degradation of quality.

If your Tea Party would like to use these photos all I ask is that you write to ask me so that I can give you written permission. The address is info(at)focusonliberty.com.

I hope you enjoy these images! See you at the an event in the future. And, please, take time to visit YouTube and view The Liberty Dial introduction video. YOU are the center. It is only the STATIST that deserve the description of 'Radical'

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The video that introduces The Liberty Dial is finally finished and is now up on YouTube. For years, it has been apparent that the "Left" vs. "Right" paradigm was massively flawed in a way that allowed big government statists to demonize and distort the views of those of us that cherish the Constitution and the Liberty that comes from honoring that document.

There is no way to be absolutely sure about the origins of the argument that political positions can be described as "Left" and "Right". But, I have a feeling that it came about as Communists, and perhaps, Fascists attempted to obfuscate the reality that both of the these political systems are simply two sides of the same coin. Both have socialist, statist roots and inevitably result in tyranny over their hapless subjects. Because both ends of the "Left" vs. "Right" spectrum are so similar, it's virtually impossible to locate other political philosphies in their proper places.

The key to sorting out these distortions and correcting them turns out to simply be to bring the ends together, where they belong, by wrapping the ends into the form of a circle. Once this is done, it's very easy to visualize and place any policy or political position in its proper perspective in terms of the Liberty (small government) vs. Tyranny (big government).

Notice that we do not place Conservatism at the top of The Liberty Dial. Absolute liberty would be chaos. SOME, limited goverment is required for any orderly system. But, even with this slight shift from dead center, the ratio of the power of the people is MUCH greater than the power of the government. This means that government can easily be driven BY the people, just as the founders envisioned.

In the "Left" vs. "Right" model, the midpoint would generally be described as the "Moderate" position. But, in reality, those seeing themselves as moderates would embrace a relatively large government without realizing the effects of the size of the government on their own freedoms and ability to make a difference in the direction of that government. Using The Liberty Dial, it's easy to see why we are having such a difficult time getting congress to listen to the people speak. Government is almost at the tipping point, where it becomes SO large that the people become powerless.

The real danger we face at this critical time in our country comes from the 111th Congress. If they have their way the tipping point will have been crossed and it will be very, very difficult to pull the ship of state back to a position where the weight of the people has any impact at all. Typically, when a country moves that far from liberty the only way to recover the liberty lost is by waiting until the system crashes under its own weight... as the Soviet Union did in the last century.

The danger, as represented by the Power Ratios in the above illustration, should be a warning to Conservative and Moderate alike. We have to be very aware of the high cost of big government not only to ourselves; but, to our children and grandchildren. The more power we give to the government over our lives, the less control we have over our destiny.

Friday, September 25, 2009

For some years, I was priviledged to produce video documentaries and training materials for the National Park Service. That, and my growing up near Washington, D.C. meant that I have had a lot of opportunities to experience a broad number of historic memorials. But, none have so profoundly moved me more than the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia.

It is my favorite memorial site.

But, The Airforce Times reports that the D-Day Memorial Foundation is in trouble and may be forced to close due to lack of funds.

It would be a shame to let that happen.

The tiny town of Bedford, Virginia lost 19 sons on the beaches of Normandy. This was the greatest loss, in proportion to population, than any other town in America. Each of those 19 sons lost their lives preserving Liberty for you, me and our future generations. I'd like to urge each person to remember that as we focus on Liberty in our own way.

During WWII, all Americans knew exactly what they were fighting for... Liberty. And, they also knew what they were fighting against... Tyranny, in the form of Fascism around the world.

As the Korean War was engaged, most Americans, again, knew exactly what they were fighting for... Liberty. And, they also knew what they were against... Tyranny, in the form of Communism.

Both Fascism and Communism can be described by their most basic underyling philosophy, Statism, the belief that an elite group of people in power in a big government has the right to control the lives of the people. Statism has been a creeping force in the United States of America for more than a century. One of the ways that it has made gains in our culture is by reforming language and controlling political discourse.

The founding fathers of our country would be shocked to see the rapid pace of the erosion of our liberties that is being attempted at the present time. In part, the erosion is facilitated by our abandoning the only language that matters when describing all things political. And, that language is Liberty vs. Tyranny rather than Right vs. Left. Freedom, in the form of limited government vs. Statism, in the form of unlimited government.

"Right", "Moderate" and "Left" are virtually meaningless. "Democrat" and "Republican" are equally meaningless. But, for at least the past half century we have let the statists, those who believe in unlimited government, control the dialog when it comes to describing the political spectrum using the terms "Left" and "Right" and we have fallen for the ruse.

By placing two forms of statism, communism and fascism, on opposite ends of a bar they have been successful in demonizing those who appose statist policies. Those who see themselves on the left, accuse those that reject their policies as being the radical right wing. The inference is clear, if we appose the policies of the left, then we must be on the 'right' and, thus, close to being Fascists. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Those who appose socialism do so on BOTH sides of the Left/Right continuum as currently defined by political pundits. The premise of left and right is so fatally flawed, being completely unable to describe limited government advocates properly.

It's time to take back control of the political dialog with a new way to describe the political spectrum and reintroduce the people of the United States to the terms of the founding fathers.

The real political battle can't be described by the terms 'Right' and 'Left'. It can only be correctly described by the very words of the founding fathers of the United States of America used in describing their fight for freedom. The real dichotomy is between Liberty and Tyranny, just as it has always been.

Statists would have us believe that Communism and Fascism are entire spectrum's apart. They are simply two different sides to the same coin... statism. And, the proof to this can be found in a man that was both a communist and a fascist. The statist, Benito Mussolini became the editor of Avanti! the largest communist newspaper in Italy in 1912, increasing readership by 5 times. In 1919, Mussolini traded one form of statism for another, founding the Italian Fascisti. In both cases, Mussolini apposed democracy and called for an elite to rule over the people.

So, a FAR more accurate way to use the above Left/Right bar is to BEND IT, so that the two ends almost meet... for they truly are only a few degrees apart in political policy. BOTH communism and fascism are statist, big government philosophies. They belong together if we are to truly understand the political spectrum.

The Liberty Dial accurately describes the true political landscape. This tool evaluates political systems in terms of where they fit on the spectrum from liberty to tyranny. Both communism and fascism are brought together where they belong... as the ultimate statist, tyrannical political systems and poles apart from freedom. Any movement from the top center position slides us away from liberty and freedom and towards statism in any of its incarnations.

The opposite of communism is NOT fascism. It is FREEDOM and LIBERTY.

Every bill, every government program, every political philosophy can be accurately charted on the Liberty Dial by assessing whether it moves us toward Liberty and individual freedom or toward statism and loss of Liberty. Not only do the old dichotomies of "Left" and "Right" go away... so does the distinction by political parties. Both major parties are the home of Statists. And, both major political parties are the home of those that love Liberty. The policies of George Bush and Barack Obama can be equally judged without regard to party. And, that is probably the greatest value of this tool.

We need to take back control of the political discourse. We need to return to the terms of the founders and those that fought against statism in all its forms. Once again, we, the people, are faced with a choice... Liberty or Tyranny and we cannot allow ourselves to be fooled by the "left"/"Right" ruse.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

When the founding fathers spoke about the purpose of their movement, they didn't use meaningless terms like "Left" or "Right". They spoke of "Freedom" vs. "King George", "Limited Governement" vs. "Limitless Government" and "Liberty" vs. Tyranny.

It's time to change the dialog and bring the discussion back on track to the true political battle... the rights of the people to dominate the state against those that would have the state dominate its people.